1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to jigsaw puzzles and methods of making them and more particularly to double-sided jigsaw puzzles for use in entertainment and educational purposes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Puzzles made of paper and other durable materials have entertained and educated since ancient times. The term “jigsaw puzzle” is derived from the name of a cutting machine, namely, a jigsaw, which is typically used to make intricate straight and curved cuts in non-metallic sheet materials. Modern jigsaw puzzles are cut by many different types of machines other than the conventional jigsaw, for example, by using a steel rule die to cut flat sheets of material, much in the same way cookies are cut out from a flat sheet of dough by a cookie cutter. It is generally agreed that the first jigsaw puzzle was produced around 1760 by John Spilsbury, a London engraver and mapmaker. Spilsbury mounted one of his maps on a sheet of hardwood and cut the borders of the countries using a fine-blade marquetry saw. These puzzles endured as the primary tools for teaching geography to British children until about 1820. In the United States, jigsaw puzzles increased in popularity during the depression years (1929-1940). Today, despite the wide spectrum of entertainment activities to choose from, jigsaw puzzles still have a strong and loyal following. Usually, a modern day puzzler seeks entertainment and is unaware that the act of solving a puzzle stimulates complex mental exercises that help strengthen spatial reasoning and memory.
A tessellation or tiling is created when a one or more shapes is repeated over and over again and covers a plane surface without any gaps or overlaps. Tessellations frequently appear in the art of M. C. Escher and are used for many different embodiments and applications, e.g., to provide coverings and decorations for planar surfaces, such as pedestrian walks, walls, counter tops, etc. and to provide patterns for games, puzzles, coloring books and the like.                U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,230,508 and 4,824,112 to Tabler and Roy, respectively, both disclose the cutting of puzzle pieces using a laser apparatus.        U.S. Pat. No. 5,217,226 to Christopher discloses a complex three-dimensional puzzle made of a transparent plastic with one or more images imbedded and suspended in the plastic.        U.S. Pat. No. 6,309,716 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,181 both to Fisher disclose sets of tessellatable elements made of an acrylic plastic, in which a relatively low number of different elements may be combined together to provide attractive tessellating patterns.        U.S. Design Pat. Nos. D 320,050 to Mannino and D353,415 to Mitchell disclose double-sided jigsaw puzzles with tessellation patterns.        U.S. Pat. No. 5,520,388 to Osborn discloses a single shape figurative tessellation or tiling that may be used in puzzles, games and other recreations.        
The foregoing prior art and other prior art jigsaw puzzles with tessellated pieces have not provided the unique combination of material, print method, cutting method and identically shapes pieces of the double-sided jigsaw puzzle of the present invention. Nor does the prior art disclose the simple and effective method of making a double-sided jigsaw puzzle according to the present invention.